There are various different seismic vulnerability assessment procedures and seismic retrofit methods that have been applied to existing buildings in seismic regions. After the analytical assessment and design phase, it is of critical importance that the retrofit design is properly applied on-site. Conventional parties such as local authorities, construction culture, construction companies, quality of workmanship and availability of materials play a crucial role in the construction of seismic resistant buildings and in the selection of retrofit method and application. Furthermore there is a lack of experience on the performance of buildings subjected to earthquakes. Authors assessed and retrofitted eight reinforced concrete buildings and one masonry building from one to six stories in Nepal, Djibouti, Turkmenistan and Haïti, respectively, in 2011,2013, 2015 and 2016. Retrofitted buildings in Nepal were subjected to 7.8 magnitude earthquake in April 2015, which gave authors the opportunity to document the seismic performance. This paper summarizes the hands-on-experience gained from four different seismic assessment and retrofitted projects conducted in four different countries. Performance of the retrofitted buildings subjected to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake and difficulties in the application of retrofit are present